The weight-loss drug Semaglutide, also known as Ozempic and Wegovy, can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes by 20%, according to a new study. Researchers think the drug – which appears to improve heart health regardless of weight loss – might be “the largest medical breakthrough since statins”, says The Guardian, and are recommending it be prescribed to millions of middle-aged Britons. Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen has testified against the former president in his trial over hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. He claims Trump was far more concerned with the effect that his affair would have on his presidential campaign than on his marriage. “Guys, they think it’s cool,” Trump allegedly said, but “women are going to hate me”. British police officers could be given Ghostbusters-style backpacks to help them apprehend suspects on e-bikes. The devices, currently being developed by the Ministry of Defence, would fire electromagnetic rays that shut down electric motors.

The dangerous rift in Israeli society

Israel is “gradually but inexorably” splitting into two incompatible states, says Alon Pinkas in Haaretz. There is the State of Israel, a “high-tech, secular, outward-looking, imperfect but liberal state”. And then there is Benjamin Netanyahu’s Kingdom of Judea, a “Jewish-supremacist, ultranationalist theocracy” with “messianic, antidemocratic tendencies”. There is a striking contrast – and fast-growing, vitriolic rift – between the “political ineptness, abject leadership” and lack of vision from the religious zealots in Jerusalem, and the excellence in “science, innovation, high-tech, medicine and the arts” mostly centered on Tel Aviv. All that now unites Israelis is one idea: “We are fighting the Arabs (or Iran) for our existence.” And there’s only so far a “negative definition of national identity” can get you.

Many Israelis were genuinely “shocked and dismayed”, says Gideon Rachman in the FT, when Joe Biden’s administration halted some military aid shipments in protest at Netanyahu’s determination to press into Rafah. David Horovitz, founding editor of The Times of Israel, called it a “devastating announcement” that showed Israel “has now lost the unstinting public support and full protection of its most essential ally”. The Israeli PM is stuck listening to the right-wingers in his government who believe “force is the only true path to Israel’s safety”, but Biden knows you cannot defeat an organisation like Hamas “simply by killing its leadership and foot soldiers”. Facing up to that reality, especially after the horrors of October 7, will require “profound shifts” in the thinking of the Israeli government and much of its public. If Biden’s decision can “kick-start that process”, he may yet salvage something from the current horror.

When Nick Clegg was leader of the Lib Dems, the BBC sent a car to fetch him for a grilling by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight, says Michael Crick in The Sunday Times. “What are the worst three questions Paxman might ask?” Clegg asked the adviser in the back seat with him, and they agreed what they most needed to avoid. Listening in was Newsnight’s long-serving driver Dave Murden, an “outwardly quiet and unassuming man but also an astute observer of politics”. Having dropped Clegg off, Murden rushed into the Newsnight office with a huge grin. “What have you got, Dave?” Paxman asked. “The three questions Nick Clegg says he doesn’t want you to ask!” In the studio a few minutes later, Clegg was duly asked, one by one, “his own three questions from hell”.

If you want to get anything done in Europe, says The Economist, “avoid May”. The month begins with Workers’ Day – “celebrated by not working” – and many get another day off on 8 May to mark the end of the Second World War. Orthodox Easter, Ascension and Pentecost result in yet more long weekends. Last week, the French government had planned a big conference promoting the four-day work week, but postponed it when they realised Wednesday and Thursday were jours fériés, days off which most people supplement with an extra day’s holiday on Friday. “Only in Europe would it be a struggle to get people to attend a meeting on working less.”

Comfortable Labour MPs are in for a shock

The right-wing Tory MP Natalie Elphicke defecting to Labour last week should have been an embarrassment for the Conservatives, says Hugo Rifkind in The Times. Instead, it has “somehow put Labour on the back foot”. Despite being about 30 points ahead in the polls, the party is stuck in “twisting, hand-wringing, self-loathing torture” about the incident, rather than simply laughing it off. It makes you think: being in government will “hit most Labour MPs like a truck”. Because in government, the back foot is “where you spend most of your time”. There are meetings that shouldn’t have happened, emails that shouldn’t have been sent, bullying accusations, gropers and dodgy flats. When journalists “by some miracle” finally do ask about policy, they’ll ask: “Why doesn’t this work and who is going to resign?”

It’s not clear that, after 14 years in comfortable opposition, Labour MPs are going to have the stamina for all this. They’ve been having too good a time as “activists, pundits and social media celebrities”. But soon, they’ll find themselves on telly talking the same “flatly ludicrous, fully aware, on-message nonsense” that Tory MPs have been stuck trotting out. And they’re not going to like it one bit. Eight shadow ministers have resigned over the party’s stance on Gaza – over Keir Starmer, who can’t affect the war, “favouring one motion calling for a ceasefire over another slightly different one”. By contrast, only four Labour ministers resigned over the Iraq war, which was launched by Britain “based on dubious evidence and in defiance of the United Nations”. With MPs like these, I’m starting to think “Starmer is going to have a difficult time in power”.

Japan’s yakuza aren’t what they once were, says Business Insider. The organised crime syndicates’ once “fearsome, violent reputation” has been eroded by strict anti-gang laws and dwindling membership. One 39-year-old “executive” of the Takinogawa gang was recently arrested for petty theft, including 25 Pokémon trading cards.

It’s the “world’s first luxury police car”, at least according to the Miami Beach Police. The re-rigged Rolls-Royce is part of an effort to persuade people to join the force. “This is the best you can get as far as it relates to vehicles,” local police chief Wayne Jones told 7 News Miami. “The police department is the best there is in the country... Using this car to help us do recruitment is gonna be great.”